Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

"Hm? Have you perhaps heard about the mystic realm?" Noticing the slight change in Xuan Hao's expression after he mentioned the mystic realm and the Mirage Sect, the man could not help feeling a sense of excitement welling up inside as he asked this.

Even if he believed Xuan Hao might know about the place that he had been searching for, he didn't really expect him to know about it. After all, the mystic realm had eluded him for countless years and was the main reason why he was willing to remain inside the small kingdom that had helped him grow in his earlier years instead of heading for the core region of the continent where there were more opportunities for him to grow.

Of course, the main reason why he was willing to stay and search for the mystic realm was because he had once obtained a bundle of ancient records that originated from the mystic realm during his youth. The ancient records not only contained information on the mystic realm, but also a profound cultivation method that allowed him to reach the Earth Immortal Realm. Surpassing the Domain Lord Realm Expert who had been the strongest in his family before him, while at the same time also allowing the small kingdom to gain independence from any of the surrounding empires.

…

Unaware of the thoughts going through the head of the man in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help frowning to himself after hearing the question. Unaware of the thoughts going through the head of the man in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help frowning to himself after hearing the question. He did indeed know about the mystic realm under the Mirage Sect and had been there before, but… He didn't want to share the location to the mystic realm, as he already intended to integrate it into the Star Shattering Sect in the future. Either having it become a training ground for the younger disciple or the future main location of the sect after he became strong enough to control the mystic realm like the Mirage Sect had done in the past.

Even if all of this was far off in the future, he didn't want to give away any of the opportunities that might be present in the mystic realm to outsiders not part of the Star Shattering Sect. Not to mention, if information of the mystic realm leaked to the larger powers on the continent, like the Blue Sea Empire and the Heavenly Dragon Temple, it would undoubtedly cause a large number of people to show up and try to cease control of the mystic realm.

With all of this in mind, Xuan Hao had no plans of divulging the location of the mystic realm to the man in front of them, as the risk posed to the Star Shattering Sect would be far too big. Especially when considering that most of the openings to the mystic realm were located inside branch sects or right next to them. For example, the entrance to the mystic realm located at the Flying Sword Sect was close enough to the Shattered Star Peaks, that a battle between Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts would end up affecting the city beneath the Ninth Star Peak and in turn the main sect… And that was not considering the fact that some of the powerful experts trying to enter the mystic realm might grow interested in the Shattered Star Peaks and try to force their way through the chaotic qi formation.

All of this was not even mentioning what kind of reaction these powerful experts might have after realizing that the path into the mystic realm was blocked by a formation preventing anyone above the Nascent Soul Realm from entering.

Just thinking about it was enough to give Xuan Hao a headache, as he could already imagine how the Star Shattering Sect's territory might end up being erased from the continent when the more powerful experts attempted to break the formation…

However, even if he wanted to pretend, he didn't know anything about the mystic realm, he understood that the man in front of him had already noticed his reaction when the mystic realm was mentioned and wouldn't allow him to try and brush the matter aside.

"I did indeed learn a bit about the mystic realm you mentioned…" For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to nod his head in response to the man's question before saying this.

"Great! Do you have any idea where the mystic realm is located? From what I managed to gather with my own research, it should be located somewhere close to this kingdom of mine. Although, even after using my divine sense to thoroughly search the surrounding empires, I never managed to find any sign of an entrance to the mystic realm…"

Showing an even more excited expression after hearing Xuan Hao's confirmation, the ancestor of the small kingdom almost looked like he was about to jump over, and grab hold of him to shake out the information.

Whoosh~

Of course, Xuan Hao didn't intend to let the man get any closer, as he decided to move backwards to keep the distance between them.

Even if their conversation so far had been rather peaceful and the ancestor of the small kingdom didn't show any signs of hostility, he didn't intend to take any chances with someone in the Half Bloom Stage of the Earth Immortal Realm.

If the distance between them became too small, the other party might be able to force him into defending himself before he could use the Dao of Space to escape…

"Ah… Sorry, I just got a little excited after hearing your answer…" Smiling a bit awkwardly as he noticed Xuan Hao rapidly retreat a little over a thousand meters after he barely took half a step forward in his excitement earlier, the ancestor of the small kingdom could only apologize in an attempt to appease Xuan Hao before he ended up running away.

No matter what, the ancestor of the small kingdom had no intention of allowing something like this to happen after finally getting some clues about the mystic realm that he had been searching for over the past thousands of years.

"No problem, as for your question about the location of the mystic realm, I'm not really clear about the exact location as I haven't personally explored it before and only happened to read about it in some ancient scrolls from the ruins of an ancient sect.

From what I learnt, the entrance to the mystic realm should be located somewhere inside the Frozen Wasteland where the demonic cultivators reside. Although I have no idea about the accuracy of the location, as I never dared to venture too far into the Frozen Wasteland. Especially now that the overall situation inside the Frozen Wasteland has become more chaotic over the past few years."

Knowing that there was no way that he could easily convince the ancestor in front of him by just giving a random location nearby, Xuan Hao decided to try and make the Frozen Wasteland the location of the entrance to the mystic realm. Hoping that it would be dangerous enough for the ancestor of the small kingdom to give up on trying to find the entrance to the mystic realm and in case he did try to find it, he would not easily suspect him and might end up believing that the entrance to the mystic realm is located deeper inside the Frozen Wasteland where the more dangerous demonic cultivators reside.

"The Frozen Wasteland… Indeed, why did I never think of that place!? No wonder I haven't been able to discover the entrance to the mystic realm, the deeper parts of that place is deadly even to those in the Celestial Immortal Realm and I never even thought about searching it for this reason, but… If the entrance to the mystic realm is really located there, I have to take a look and see if I can find it!" Mumbling this to himself as his expression changed between one filled with excitement and one filled with understanding, the ancestor of the small kingdom didn't bother saying anything to the two of them as he directly turned around and disappeared in the direction of the Frozen Wasteland.

Obviously, what Xuan Hao had told him was more than enough to convince him that the location of the entrance was indeed somewhere in the Frozen Wasteland. Another thing to add to the claim of the entrance to mystic realm being there was the fact that the old ancestor had already spent thousands of years searching through the surroundings for any sign of an entrance to the mystic realm without finding anything.

The only place nearby he hadn't searched was the Frozen Wasteland and when Xuan Hao mentioned it to him, he didn't doubt his words in the slightest, as he felt that it made sense for the entrance to be in the only location he hadn't searched through yet.

"Let's get going…"

Not knowing what else to say following the disappearance of the old ancestor of the small kingdom, Xuan Hao could only smile wryly before picking Pei Yang up with his domain to continue their journey back to the Star Shattering Sect.